#Covid19 thoughts gave birth to #LiveAndLetLive Campaign.

#Covid19 right? A period of "turbulent times" (shit, I'm tired of describing it like this) that we all mention, over and over again these past few weeks... or maybe months? I really feel I've lost track of time. It's been so many days and weeks I'm stuck at home and trying to keep calm about this whole situation that we've all been experiencing. All. The whole world. I don't know if I have ever written about something so BIG, that I have to think and analyze it on a global scale.

Well, I think this #pandemic is worth thinking, analyzing, staring, talking and writing about it. So many oxymoron feelings have been born, so many actions have initiated, so many breaks have been stepped on. I truly feel like someone has stepped on the break for everyone, or that our lives have been accelerated like never before. I cannot describe which of the two is happening. Why? Because people are dying by the thousands around us, and simultaneously it feels like life has just begun for most of us. There's nothing you can do but stay put, so as not to risk your own life and that of others, while on the other hand there are so many things you can do to replace time spent otherwise before. If you really think about it, every day went on somewhat like this:

• (violent for some) wake-up "call" to go to work
• work
• returning home (some, show signs of incompetence to detox from work stress)
• dinner (portions often go crazy)
• kids' time (on a frenzy mode)
• falling asleep (during a Netflix remote-control search)

...and in between, don't let me show you the feature that reveals time spent on your mobile phone and useless Social Media channels. Don't. You might as well be brave and candid to admit it to yourself.

Where I'm getting at? I don't know what to feel about this #virus. I don't know if, after all, it's for the best of our society and economy, with all the ridiculousness that was going on around us. Perfect word to describe the fact that I've been searching for a house to move and rentals have gone wild cause owners are being spoilt due to Airbnb choices. Perfect word to describe that couples don't speak to each other, don't make love more often, don't know how to be creative amongst them nowadays, don't bother to get to know the person that sits besides them for better or worse, truly discovering the new self we all develop each day that passes by; we NEED to acknowledge that we all change and it's a great opportunity to make time discovering, matching and loving our chosen partners (we did choose them, right?). Perfect word to describe that employers have placed on each employee's shoulder more than one person's job description - the Financial Crisis "took care" of that - expecting from them to act "mutant" and discarding expertise. Perfect word to describe whoever has left his child grow up with a mobile on one hand, and a Playstation controller on the other; don't you dare say you haven't got a choice cause "its a generation thing" and "all other children are like this, how on earth will I persuade my own to act differently?". Where on YOUR earth did you read that bringing up a child leaves room for (their) choice 24/7? Children need guidance, experience, security, creativity, but most of all, they need love and for YOU to BE THERE, at all costs, despite your daily fatigue or how manipulative they can get.

All above, have made me think these past few weeks, a lot. I had a lot of time to think, actually. Every day. I thought of how our grandparents loved one another no matter what, how our parents used to fight in front of us but always ended up - despite the mistakes and the sufferings - providing us with everything it was in their "hand" to provide. And now, I see not only the deaths this disease has caused. I see truth in everything. And people still summon me to help them engineer, re-engineer, develop their careers and professional choices... to lead them where? To the reality where no-one respects no-one - not even themselves, their partners or their children? You do see how it is all connected, right? How can I ever consult one on his/her career, when all the focus of his/her life, day till night, is targeted to pathetic, barely scratching-the-surface "luxuries"?

I really don't want to tire you anymore. YOU GET IT. You get the picture, and if you don't, then you're a lost cause. For those who get it, I'll be here writing some more stuff the following days and it occurred to me to publish, for starters, some simple advice on how to spent your days and time left due to every country's lockdown.

? I've named this campaign

#LiveAndLetLive ?

Not only because we all have got to start acting more responsibly across our fellow citizens, in order to stay safe, both ourselves and them. But because we have got to start living as we should, if we respect life as it was given to us and enjoy it.

When I chose to name the campaign like that, I couldn't for sure remember where I'd heard those crystal words. Then, with a little bit of search, I remembered a fragment of lyrics from a Guns n' Roses song ("Live and Let Die"), as well as the title of a James Bond film of 1973 ("Live and Let Die"). Then, I found the exact phrase as a proverb meaning that "...you should tolerate the opinions and behaviour of others, so that they will similarly tolerate your own". And lastly, I also found it as a quote of James Frey from his book "A Million Little Pieces", where he says "Live and let live, do not judge, take life as it comes and deal with it, everything will be okay."

I really hope my new wake-up campaign inspires you. I really hope everything will be ok.

Live. And let Live. ??

The campaign #LiveAndLetLive posts will be published each Monday and Friday on the Ethel Agelatou LinkedIn Company Page.

[a special #ThankYou to the people that are keeping me company these days of lockdown, friends and clients, all who tolerate me, call me, love me up close or from a distance; you rock and inspire me to be who I am, and write]

#StaySafe #StayHome #StayingHome #WorkfromHome #EthelAgelatou #Covid19 #Covid_19 #Covid19Gr #Κορονoιο? #CoronaVirus #StayStrong #Menoume_Spiti #MenoumeSpiti #Μ?νουμεΣπ?τι #Μ?νουμε_Σπ?τι

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Ethel Agelatou is a Corporate & Employer Branding Coach, an HR Consultant, as well as an Editor of Career Consulting Journals (online & offline), covering topics on personal branding, unemployment, HR researches, Social Media and entrepreneurship. But most passionately of all, she is a LinkedIn Trainer & Evangelist, specializing in promoting and highlighting the Corporate, Employer & Personal Branding of LinkedIn users’ profiles and pages, while conducting:

• In-house corporate trainings (custom services according to clients’ needs/online brand)
• Open seminars (speeches/hands-on workshops)
• One-to-one sessions, bringing out personal or corporate eBranding

She has trained more than 7,500 people via hands-on workshops and auditorium lectures, and collaborated so far with more than 70 organizations & associations. Follow Ethel's work on her LinkedIn & Facebook Company Page, Twitter and About.me.